Education for life in Africa: an event to remember – report by Bert van Pinxteren

(Voor het Nederlandse verslag > scroll naar beneden)

Education for Life in Africa – a title like that inevitably leads to a number of questions. Do we know what kind of life the African youngster of today can look forward to? What is the place of African education in a globalizing world? Does ‘one size fit all’, or do we need different types of education? All these and more questions were tackled in the information-filled conference of the Netherlands Association of African Studies (NVAS), on 19 and 20 May in the beautiful facilities of the The Hague University of Applied Sciences.

The Conference brought together more than 100 experts, students, teachers and researchers from many different countries, around half of them from Africa. The setting, provided by Jos Walenkamp as resident expert and host, together with the intense format, made for the possibility of lively debate and intensive information and knowledge sharing between participants.

The diversity that was present at the conference is illustrated by the keynote speeches: Goolam Mohamedbhai from Mauritius discussed engineering education. He criticized the tendency to provide a purely theoretical education and pointed to the need to provide more facilities for a hands-on, practical approach. Ingse Skattum from Norway discussed language of instruction issues, leading to lively debates throughout the conference on the need (or otherwise) of using African indigenous languages in education. Jan and Frouke Draisma recalled how they had developed methods for teaching math in indigenous languages for Mozambique, back in the ‘90s.

Panels included such diverse topics as gender and education, higher education and enrolment, informal education, education and the city, collaboration between Europe and Africa on education, employability, literacy teaching and teacher training.

For me personally, the Conference was a goldmine of ideas and new connections. I had not heard of or met the formidable Edward Nsoh from Ghana – but it turned out we were on the same page on many issues. Nor did I know the frail muslim Senegalese woman Mariama Fall – who turned out to be a powerful speaker on youth employment issues. Then there was Madi Ditmars from South Africa – who is using the same instruments I plan to do research on. There was Azeb Amha of the African Studies Centre, back with fresh new ideas from a period of fieldwork in Ethiopia – and it went on like that.

In short – NVAS and the Conference programme committee (Anneke Breedveld, Jan Jansen, Beer Schröder and Jos Walenkamp) really outdid themselves for this event, which also marked the 20th Annniversary of NVAS itself, as eloquently remarked by Felix Ameka. If you missed it – wait for the publication that the Conference will generate, due out next year.